Justice

Reading the news tonight about Libya is making me sick.  I don't know what to think or how to feel, and honestly, I am sad at how little I know about what is going on.  It's hard to know the truth, knowing the media can make things look however they want to.  Politics is always a little shady too.  I don't understand any of it.

I hate war, and honestly I think God hates war too.  However, He loves justice.  He also asked the Israelites to engage in battle on many occasions.  When is war right?  How are we called to establish justice?

The justice of God is something I have never quite understood and I guess maybe I never will.  I do know that in order for life to make sense, there has to be truth.  The truth is that God gave us a choice to either choose Him or reject Him, and that has eternal consequences, both good and bad.  That demonstrates both God's justice and love, since we have all rejected Him.  His justice had to be satisfied, so Jesus came to die.  So therefore, God's justice and truth must be linked, as well as His love.

The truth is that God loves us.  That is the subject that is discussed most in church.  That's nice to think about.  However, there are a lot of bad things that go on in the world, like trafficking, child labor, and orphans on the street.  SO MANY other things fit into this category.  How do we respond to that?  I know that these atrocities must anger God and He weeps for the innocent who suffer.  If He loves both the abuser and the abused, then how do we be agents of God's justice to both parties?

To make it even more complicated, how do we handle genocide that occurs in other countries?  Like Apartheid in South Africa and the killing of over 800,000 people in Rwanda over tribal wars?  Surely it isn't right to sit by and do nothing.  However, how do we decide which injustices to respond to and which to leave alone?  Some people believe we would be sticking our nose where it does not belong.  I don't know how you pick your fights, because if I see someone hurting someone else, I might see it as my responsibility to intervene.

I'd better figure out where I stand on these issues, especially since my calling is to work with orphans in central Africa.  I know that I hate war.  However, I also hate it when someone who has the power to help stands by and watches the innocent suffer.  Some situations are easier to deal with than others.  If anybody reads this post, you should let me know what you think about this.